Tuesday, May 17, 2011

A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent. ~ William Blake

I must confess that I am totally shocked by the cheer world today. There are approximately 60 kids without a cheer home today. They say everything happens for a reason and it wasn't really a home to begin with then. BUT that doesn't make it right. Everything is rumor and hearsay right now but the truth is that this person pursued athletes in this area aggressively. This person was messing with others livelihoods. You don't go and open a cheer gym in another gym's backyard then facebook all their athletes. Luckily, most of these kids have parents who intervened on their facebooks and blocked this person or drilled into their heads that is was inappropriate for this adult, a stranger to talk to them on facebook. Did this person care about the kids?! NO! It was all about money. 60 kids is a great start for a new gym with so many gyms in the surrounding area.

I am heading into my 7th year in the cheer world as an All-Star Cheer Mom. Here is my advice to all of you:
1. Never ever burn a bridge. I am sure I have burned a few but I am honest and true so in my mind I just tell it like it is.
2. There is no such thing as a secret in cheerleading. We all will find out the true story eventually.
3. Never ever pay tuition up front at a first year cheer gym!
4. Monitor your child;s facebook daily or twice a day. Yes, I think it is ok for them to have facebook. Why? because you can track what they say better than on an instant messenger.
5. Formspring, just say NO! Anonymous comments, nothing good ever comes out of that.
6. You or your child are not entitled to anything, they have to earn it. It doesn't matter how many years and how the stars are aligned that day but until your athlete earns it they do not deserve a spot.
7. Don't ever tell the coaches what team you want your kid on, you might get what you wish for. They are impartial and they know your kids skills better. We are their biggest fan but we may not know what is best for them.
8. Did I say there is no such thing is a secret?? I don't care if you say don't repeat it....someone will.
9. Before choosing to leave a cheer gym, ask your child what they want. They just might have the answer you have been looking for.

So, it looks like tryouts are over here in South Florida. Top Gun gets their placements tonite. What a crazy year?! Kids trying out at 4 and 5 gyms. I have seen Mom's spend less on college applications then cheer tryout fees. I have seen parents power playing by taking their kids to another gym to get what they want at their current gym. And guess what? Most of them get it. I had the most drama free year I have had in years, the parents at my daughter's gym seem happy. The first week of practice for the teams seemed to be amazing. The 2 teams I saw looked SICK!!!! No one was calling me saying, I can't believe so and so made that team or that team. Well, at least not about my daughter's gym. I heard it about some of the others. It seems to be the most drama filled tryout season as far as the area goes but the drama was the lowest for me. Why? It is all who you choose to associate yourself with. Your create your own destiny especially as a cheer mom.

Every year, they post the Top 10 Party Schools in Playboy Magazine, I think they need to post in American Cheerleader Magazine Top 10 Drama Free All-Star Gyms! Can we find 10? There will always be some drama but it is all in how it is handled. How does your gym handle drama? Does that parent get a talking to? Does that parent even care?

Wow, I feel better. I needed to get it all out. I just can't imagine what those kids and their parents feel like today. All the other gyms have had their tryouts. I hope their are gyms that will accept them with open arms and turn this around for them.

3 comments:

I love reading your blogs. I couldnt agree with you more. My daughter has been in cheer for about 6 years now and we have had drama in our gym. It has always been around one parent and for some reason they allowed this person to gossip about everyone and anyone. People were tired of it and left to another gym. I would keep to myself and stay away but like you said parents would dictate to the gym what team their child would be on even if they did not have that skill level. So we too decided to leave. Hopefully this new gym will not allow such a thing so far so good they did team placement accordingly to skill level and people are still in the gym. Keeping my fingers cross for a peaceful season compared to what we have had the last 6 years

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.its nice to read a useful article for beginner like me. Some of points from this article are very helpful for me as I haven’t considered them yet. I would like to say thank you for sharing this cool article. Bookmarked and sharing for friends.

Networked Blogs

About Me

I am the owner of Just Cheer Bows. I am a Cheer and Baseball Mom. My daughter is 12 and is on her 7th year of competitive year. My son is 9 and on his 5th year of baseball. I love scrapbooking and photography. I especially like to take pictures of my kids doing what they love.